[Leica] HCB negative

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

I was talking to Tom Abrahamsson this morning, and he recollected as 
did I that HCB said once when asked about the sprocket hole strip, 
and why it was missing: 'I ate them', implying at least that he had 
done it for whatever reason, and that this is likely the original.

On the other hand we're all just guessing and inferring from hearsay, 
and probably the full 'truth' will never come out anymore. And it 
really doesn't matter.

As far as 'old style' film is concerned, some of the stuff that Efke 
markets comes closer than today's Tri-X and HP5+ or other films from 
the majors. The Efke offerings come from a couple of different 
manufacturers and are based on old Adox and Orwo emulsions. MACO also 
produces some (and Efke markets some of those, as well).



At 1:53 PM -0400 6/10/11, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
>Henning is right! I stand corrected. I based my original conclusion on
>measuring the image on an iPad. But enlarged on a 20" screen, and making
>allowance for the foreshortening, I estimate that the negative strip is 27.5
>mm wide. A row of perforations could have been snipped off and still leave
>the full image frame. Why that was done is hard to say. Damage? Stripped
>sprocket holes?
>
>The fact that the film was snipped does not mean that the negative shown was
>not a copy. E. Leitz (remember them?) made several devices for duplicating
>film strips including the Elida Film Printer, the Eldur Contact Printer, and
>the Kopat Combination Printer. One of the major scientific uses of the Leica
>camera was copying rare artifacts and manuscripts in situ. Leitz itself
>suggested that distribution prints of rarities be produced from copy
>negatives to avoid excessive handling and potential damage to irreplaceable
>original images. The HCB jump negative probably fits in that category.
>Interestingly Leitz never suggested blowing up the negative to 4x5 size to
>make copy prints. The idea probably would have gone against the 35mm bias of
>the company. A full description of Leica copying technique is spelled out in
>Morgan and Lester's "Leica Manual," especially the editions published before
>1950 when specialized microfilm copying equipment became widely available.
>
>Larry Z
>
>_______________________________________________
>Leica Users Group.
>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information

-- 

       Henning J. Wulff
  Wulff Photography & Design
mailto:henningw at archiphoto.com
   http://www.archiphoto.com